Snake Pit Ale House

This Fairfax bar fills a valuable niche. After all, it can be hard enough to find a place to watch a Dodger game in Lakers-dominated Los Angeles; it's harder still when you're trying to avoid the blaring, brightly lit domains of white-capped frat boys. Snake Pit Ale House on Melrose, however, rises to the challenge. With a couple of plasma TVs in addition to a wall-sized projection screen that's typically given over to the night's biggest game, you're almost guaranteed to be able to see your team of choice, in an environment that's both divey and homey, with 20 beers on tap and a decent jukebox. It's like a bar on San Francisco's Mission Street plunked down in L.A., the place you go when you're into craft beers and Black Flag, but also — secretly or not so secretly — some brand of sports geek.